


Steve Versus Tony's Workshop

by Neverever



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-09 10:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5536667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony hesistates to let Steve into his workshop, Steve begins to worry. Then he decides to do something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steve Versus Tony's Workshop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zappedbysnow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zappedbysnow/gifts).



> Here's my 2015 Cap-Iron Man Holiday Exchange Fic for Zappedbysnow who asked for a fic about how hard it is for Steve to distract Tony in the workshop. I hope that this story fits the bill.
> 
> Big thanks to my beta Armsplutonic who helped with the story.

It was Sam who said something first about Tony. “Tony’s locking me out of his workshop,” he complained over pizza. “I have to use some of the equipment in there to run my simulations.”

“He’s done that before,” Clint said unsympathetically. He grabbed another slice of pizza. “Give it a day -- he’ll get over it.”

“Yeah, but I need that equipment now,” Sam replied.

“Get Steve to talk to Tony – he’ll fix it,” Natasha pointed out.

“I’m not Tony’s Keeper,” Steve said. He eyed the remaining five pizza boxes as he loaded up his plate. If Tony didn’t get to the kitchen soon, Thor and Hulk would handily finish off the rest of the pizza. He should save him some.

“You got to admit that Tony listens to you –“ Clint said.

“Fine.” Steve tossed his balled up napkin on the table. “I’ll go talk to him.” He grabbed one of the pizza boxes on his way to the workshop. “Sam?”

“Yep, I’m coming,” Sam said ready to tag along on Steve’s trip to the workshop.

Steve had no particularly special technique for getting Tony’s attention when he was hard at work. Usually all it took was knocking on the door and a quick confirmation from JARVIS. Then Steve’d get his errand done or just hang out for a few hours talking or sketching. Tonight shouldn’t be any different. He knocked on the door. JARVIS asked why he was there. Steve told him. 

This time, nothing happened. Although Steve could plainly see Tony hard at work on a gauntlet through the new workshop window he put in after remodeling the Tower.

“Um, JARVIS?” Steve asked.

“Sorry, Captain, Sir seems to be pre-occupied at the moment.”

“Could you tell him I have pizza?” Steve held up the box. This would be so much easier if Tony would look up from his welding.

A few minutes more and the workshop doors slid open. “Who knew that pizza was the magic word?” Sam said.

“Let’s get your equipment.”

The next day as Steve did his usual morning workout, he couldn’t shake the memory of how Tony hesitated to let him into the workshop. That had not happened before. Tony usually took Steve’s interruptions in stride, good naturedly going along with Steve’s helpful reminders. Naturally, Steve worried about Tony and his tendencies to stay in the workshop, obsessing over every tiny detail of designing and manufacturing his armors, not eating or sleeping. That couldn’t be good for anyone, especially Tony.

But he’d never locked Steve out of the workshop before. After a run and a shower cleared his head, Steve chalked it up to a one-time thing. Tony was probably at a delicate spot working on the armor and couldn’t stop at that moment. Building, fixing and maintaining the armors was a hard job for even someone as brilliant as Tony.

A week later, around the first Friday in December, he swung by the workshop to pick up Tony. They were supposed to go to a movie with Clint in an hour. He knocked. No answer. Hmm, maybe Tony wasn’t there. Steve couldn’t see him through the window. “JARVIS, where is Tony?”

“Sir is in the workshop.”

“He’s not answering.”

“I will check, Captain.”

Steve waited another few minutes. “JARVIS, can I see the workshop?”

JARVIS pulled up a holoscreen for the workshop where Steve could see Tony rummaging through a couple of crates in the back of the workshop. “Tony?” he asked.

Startled from his work, Tony looked around and then jauntily waved in the direction of the holoscreen. “Be right out, Cap.”

They weren’t all that late to the movie in the end. One upside was that they missed all the previews. The downsides were Tony complaining about the poor seats and Steve’s lack of popcorn since they couldn’t hit up the concession stand before the movie. “I could buy this theater,” Tony muttered. “And then I could sit anywhere I wanted to.” Steve nodded grimly, his stomach rumbling. “Or we could have waited until we could have seen it at home.”

“Oh shut up, Stark. Steve thought you needed an airing,” Clint snapped. Tony rolled his eyes in reply.

When they got back to the Tower, Steve suggested catching something on television. But Tony frowned. “I don’t about know about that, Steve, I’ve got an idea about the helmet – I really should put in an hour or two in the workshop.”

Steve swallowed back his vague disappointment. “Maybe another time?” he suggested, trying to put on the best face he could. He liked spending time with Tony. And sometimes hanging out on the couch lead to other equally fun and interesting times. If he was being completely honest with himself, Steve had been looking forward to that possibility. It had been a while since Tony ended up in Steve’s bed.

“Sure, we’ll figure out a time,” Tony agreed. He knocked back another black coffee and headed off to the workshop with a spring in his step.

The next week was full of fighting Hyperion and Nighthawk, tracking down a lead on Red Skull, and holiday shopping. Sam and Natasha had worked up some sort of present exchange with two rules: nothing more than 25 dollars and no switching. Steve had pulled Thor’s name out of the Cap helmet. He felt lucky – Thor was easy to shop for. Thor liked pretty much anything representative of Midgard or food.

Steve passed through the data crux on his way out. It suddenly struck him that he hadn’t seen Tony in the data crux for a month, maybe more. He could usually count on finding Tony sitting right there with a pile of coffee cups and analyzing the latest supervillain attack. Maybe he should get Tony to come out with him shopping. He’d grumble and be kind of obnoxious about it. But he knew they would have a great time in the end.

He knocked. And knocked. The workshop window was darkened so Steve couldn’t see anything. JARVIS confirmed that Tony was in the workshop. But no answer.

JARVIS pulled up a holoscreen without being asked. Tony was hip-deep in armor parts and covered in grease. Steve sighed. “Tony?” he asked.

Tony pushed back his welding goggles and yawned. “Oh, hey, Steve. What’s up?”

“I was on my way to buy a present for the gift exchange. Want to come along?” he said. 

“Um.” Tony looked around at the pile of parts. “I’m in the middle of something.”

“It would be only a couple of hours -- maybe we could grab something to eat too.” Steve suddenly tensed up, worried that Tony wasn’t going to take him up on his offer. 

“Sure, just got to clean up in here.”

Steve had a nice time with Tony walking through the crowded New York streets. They ended up at a sandwich place not far from the Tower. But Tony seemed distracted through lunch. “What’s going on, Tony?”

Tony looked up from the diagrams he sketched out on a collection of napkins arrayed around his plate. “Um, not much. Just had a thought --”

“About the armor?”

“Yeah,” Tony finally confessed. “I should get back.”

Steve nodded. “Well, we got the shopping done.”

After that, Steve fretted quietly. He hadn’t really noticed before how often Tony was just around the tower. When he got coffee, or hung out in the data crux, or observe training sessions. Now Tony had missed three team dinners, sleepwalked through a routine fight with some subpar Justin Hammer-built robots, and turned down invites to join the team playing video games or watching television.

Steve’s magical ability to get Tony out of the workshop and join the land of the living had completely evaporated. Tony barely acknowledged him when he came to the workshop. Like he was Clint or Scott. 

“You shouldn’t take it personally,” Natasha said. She was writing up a report in the data crux when Steve came back from a failed mission to Tony’s workshop. Natasha leaned back in her chair, sipping coffee. “He does that to everyone.”

Not to me, Steve thought. “He’s in there close to 20 hours a day.”

“He must have a big project. The past few months have been rough on the armors,” she said. “He’ll be at the team holiday party.”

Steve wasn’t so sure about that. He frowned, thinking that there had to be more to it than just a big project.

“He’s not going to miss Thor versus Clint over beer pong.”

Hmm, maybe he could apply some strategic thinking to solve his problem. Not his problem -- the team’s problem of Tony.

~~~~~

Steve was dispatched again by the team to drag Tony out of the workshop. This time Hulk and Thor were engaged in a video game battle (Shield of Honor again) and Natasha and Sam thought that Tony wouldn’t want to miss it. 

Again Tony didn’t answer when Steve knocked and called his name. Steve could see Tony trying out a hinge on the suit. Swallowing his dignity, Steve launched into a tap dance routine, calculated to draw Tony’s attention. He danced back and forth in front of the window, with a ready smile on his face. He even circled his arms as part of the routine.

Tony never even noticed.

Sighing, Steve asked JARVIS to play a longer piece of music and started his routine again. Now his smile was fragile on his face and a bad feeling was settling into his stomach. He had never had such little attention from Tony. And he felt completely unsettled by it. He ramped up the tap dancing, thinking a little louder noise would finally get Tony’s attention.

Apparently falling on his ass got Tony’s attention just fine. At one point in his turn, Steve stepped on a slick spot on the floor and fell down in a spectacular tumble. Getting to his feet, he noticed Tony blinking bleary-eyed at him. They exchanged waves and a smile.

He managed to convince Tony to show up for at least part of video game night. But Tony didn’t sit down with the team. He opted to lean against a wall furiously tapping away on his tablet and halo of holoscreens. 

Steve nudged him. “Come on, Tony.”

“I’ve got an idea that I can’t shake,” Tony replied. “Have to work it through while it’s still in my mind.”

While Steve watched Hulk and Thor thrash each other in another video game, Tony slipped away back to the workshop. All Steve could think was what went wrong that Tony couldn’t spend any time with them. He’d have to try something else.

~~~~~

The fact was that Steve missed Tony. A lot. Terribly. All the time. He racked his brain thinking of what he did or said that alienated Tony. He thought that they had been getting along just fine after their brief split during the Ultron incident. 

They trained together, ate together, joked and laughed together. Steve had even found Tony asleep in the morning next to him, instead of leaving in the middle of the night. It had all been so promising. But for the past few weeks, Tony grudgingly budged from the workshop only when begged or bribed.

Steve worried and fretted that Tony was slipping through his fingers and he had no idea why.

~~~~~

When Steve got into a fight, he was in it to win it. He wasn’t going to give up on Tony. Ever. Although Steve was on foreign ground when it came to waging a battle against Tony’s workshop for Tony. He was going to give it his best.

Before the Christmas party, Steve showed up at the workshop with cookies and mugs of hot chocolate. He knocked on the door, anticipating no answer. “JARVIS?”

“On it, Captain.”

The doors slid open and Steve saw Tony standing at his workbench flexing the fingers of a gauntlet as he peered at holoscreens full of armor diagrams and data. Tony was wearing a pairs of jeans and a ratty t-shirt covered with metal shavings and stains and possibly scorch marks. Totally Tony and utterly gorgeous.

Steve took a deep breath. He wasn’t entirely ready to launch Operation Seduction. But he had to seize the opportunity when it presented itself. “Hey, I brought some snacks,” he said as he walked up to Tony.

Tony blinked at him like Steve had apparated out of nowhere. “Uh, yeah, sure, put the tray down over there somewhere. If you can find the space.” He waved over to the side tables full of electronics and armor parts. 

Steve cleared a spot for the tray. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught Tony shoving something under the table. “Want a cookie?”

“Hmmmm,” Tony said in reply. He was already immersed back in whatever work he was doing.

Steve stepped in behind him. He couldn’t quite follow what Tony was doing. Half the work Tony did was in his mind and never typed out. Steve knew how brilliant Tony was -- anyone could see that with the complex armors he built. But working all the time wasn’t doing him any favors. “When was the last time you took a shower, Tony?”

“Shower? A day ago or, um, three …”

He stood behind Tony, close enough to feel the warmth of Tony’s body against his. He put a hand on Tony’s hip and blew a puff of air across his ear. “Come on, take a break.”

“Naw, I’ve got to figure out what’s wrong with these joints.”

Steve caressed Tony’s hip. “Team would like to see you. I’d like to see you.” He pressed his lips to the shell of Tony’s ear. “All that can wait.”

“Uh, what are you doing, Steve?”

By that point, Steve slid his other hand across the front of Tony’s jeans, running his hand lightly over the zipper. He hoped for some reaction from Tony.

“I’ve got work to do.”

This wasn’t quite the reaction that Steve was expecting. “You don’t have time for a little bit of fun?”

Tony laughed. “Don’t steal my lines, Steve.” He briefly leaned back into Steve. “But, seriously, a ton of work here.”

“You can always come back after taking a break. Some food, a shower, maybe, uh, some one-on-one time.”

“Wait.” Tony smacked his forehead. “I missed the party, right?”

“No. Natasha and Sam headed out shopping. Thor and Hulk cleared us out yesterday. Party starts in a couple of hours.”

“Oh, I still have time -- whoa there, big guy,” Tony said as Steve moved his hand between Tony’s legs. “You’re distracting me.”

“That’s the point.” He pulled a low moan out of Tony as he stroked his crotch.

“Steve, I really don’t have time --”

Before Steve could push the point, there was a loud crash in a corner of the workshop. Like a pile of armors had fallen over. A large pile. Steve stared at the pile of suits. “What the heck, Tony?”

“Steve -- there’s a reason, really,” Tony started. He wiggled out of Steve’s arms to run over to the suits. Steve followed after him. “Don’t come any closer. It’s a mess.”

“Ah, how many suits, Tony?” Steve asked. 

“Um, enough? Lots? I lost count a while ago.” Tony ran his hand through his hair. “I can take care of this, Steve. I’ll be up for the party after I sort this out. And take a shower.”

Steve bent over to sort through the armors. He nudged a makeshift suit out of the way and found a large dark object partially hidden by the other armors. “Uh, Tony. What’s this?”

“Uh … it might be your Christmas present?”

“It doesn’t look like it’s under $25 dollars.”

Steve freed the object from the armors to reveal a fully restored 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA. Steve whistled low as he ran a hand over the handlebars.

“It’s not one of yours -- just looks like it. I found it a couple of months ago on a Stark Industries warehouse tour -- it was in bad shape but the frame was solid. I thought the restoration work would be easy. But I had to order parts and reprogram the 3D printer and kept running into problems. That’s, uh, why I’ve been stuck down here for the past few weeks. I wanted to get it done by Christmas.”

“Tony, this is amazing.” If Steve didn’t know better, he would thought that Tony found a perfect model of the old motorcycle he rode in the war.

Tony put his hand on Steve’s arm. “It’s been hard -- acting like I didn’t know you were at the door. Every time you stopped by, I was working on the bike. So I couldn’t let you in until I could hide what I was working on.”

“Tony,” Steve repeated. He shook his head thinking of all the work Tony had put in. 

“Then you show up today -- and you said you missed me,” Tony said in a soft voice.

Steve wasn’t sure if he actually heard awe and surprise in Tony’s tone. But Tony immediately grabbed his attention from the bike. “That’s not quite --”

“Ha. You show up here and try to seduce me -- don’t give me that look, Steve, that’s exactly what you were doing -- and now you’re trying to avoid telling me what’s going on?

“I -- I don’t know what to say,” Steve admitted. “You didn’t leave your workshop for days and you skipped out on team activities …”

“No, I showed up to hang out with the team -- JARVIS?”

“Captain Rogers is right, Sir, you’ve either been here or in your room for the past seven weeks.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad.” Tony stopped and looked at Steve. “Oh, when was the last time we --”

“Seven weeks ago,” Steve said miserably. “But that’s not --”

Tony put his hands on Steve’s cheeks. “Um, sorry? Nothing to do with you, Steve, I just took on a project with a deadline that sucked up all my time.”

Steve put his forehead on Tony’s. “You didn’t let me in the workshop. And wouldn’t talk to me.”

“That’s all over now.” Tony gave him a quick kiss. “Don’t blame yourself. Hey, I know that’s exactly what you’re doing right now.”

Steve smiled and slid his arms around Tony’s waist to draw him closer. “Like you guessed, I did miss you. Still do.”

“Aw. I’m flattered. I should make it up to you. How long until the party?”

“A couple hours,” Steve replied. 

“So, what would you have done if your plan failed today?”

Steve frowned. “I’d have to come up with another plan --” Admittedly he was distracted at the moment since Tony decided to put his warm hands on Steve’s ass. At least things were getting back on track again and all would be right in the world.

“So, let’s work this out. Say, would you have shown up naked with cheesecake?” Steve snorted. “We could try that out right now,” Tony added hopefully.

“Well, I do owe you something for the bike,” Steve said with a smile. “Merry Christmas, Tony.”

“You too, Steve.”


End file.
